Split Love

PROLOGUE

I shouldn't be here.

I shouldn't be.

I gave my life for all of this, everything that I am and I feel that every day I am closer to the consequences.

All I wanted was to be home with my family. Home. How long has it been since I entered my real home?

I miss it so much. The house I built with the woman of my life, my family. I feel like everything is fading away.

But I accepted it, I accepted giving up everything.

I park my car away from street lights.

Something isn't right. I can feel this bad feeling building in my chest and spreading through my veins.

I send my location to a friend's trusted number before getting out of the car. In the dark street, you can barely hear my footsteps. I go down the few rotten wooden steps that lead to the sand on the beach, something I've done some times in these last years. I feel my heart nearly leaping out of my chest in these quick seconds.

The full moon illuminates the immense ocean in front of me. The sound of waves breaking on the rocks is loud.

- Sam? - I whisper as I'm engulfed by the darkness of the pier above me. The pebbles of broken shells crunch under my black shoes.

One step, another step. I don't want to use the flashlight in my pocket.

-Sam? - I whisper once more before hearing a muffled scream.

I freeze. I can't take another step forward. My heart is beating so fast it feels like it's going to come out of my mouth

- Can you smell that, Yuri? - That terrible, icy voice that I know very well hits my ears like a knife in my heart. - It's fear.

The light reaches my eyes before the noise. Before I can process what's happening right in front of me, I see a gunshot hit my wife in the side of her head. A quick flash of light before the thunderous noise I've grown accustomed to.

What I didn't get used to is the sound of my wife's body falling to the floor. I scream as I pick up the gun from my waistband.

It's dark, and I fire in Andrei's direction, but I fail.

- You really thought you could sneak in for how long before we found out?

A lighter is lit a few feet away from me, at the same moment I feel a gun to my head. I could care nothing right now and just kill this bastard in front of me, but besides Andrei, the dancing light from the small fire flame reveals something else in the background.

Small, curled up, with a dirty cloth tied around her delicate mouth...

Grace.

My daughter is here. Her eyes are frozen on her mother lying on the floor in front of her, her beautiful blonde hair covered in blood.

- What did you do, Andrei? - I scream.

I scan every man and think about the possibility of getting out of here alive with my daughter. They are so many but I have to try.

One of the men grabs my daughter's arm and before he can lift her small body off the ground, my instincts take over and I start to struggle. Doing nothing isn't an option.

I wriggle out of the gun behind me and hit the man in the head with my elbow before shooting him in the chest. A shot grazes my back, and using the dead man's body as a shield, I manage to hit two more.

I feel the moonlight illuminating my face and I realize that with the fight we came out from under the pier. A shot hits my shoulder and the gun falls from my hand.

- What do you want? - I ask after a punch lands in my mouth. I feel warm blood trickling down my arm. - You've figured it all out already, haven't you? You should have killed me, not her! Me!!! - I scream before spitting out the blood pooling in my mouth.

- You betrayed me. You were under my roof, you were my family and you betrayed me.

I try to run towards him but a shot hits my knee making me fall to the ground.

My daughter's muffled scream makes me not give up. I pull the small pistol out of my sock and shoot the man beside me and Yuri, Andrei's right-hand man. The shot grazes his face.

Behind Yuri, a man appears carrying my wife's already pale body. Her beautiful blue eyes are dull, their usual sparkle gone.

I try to get up but before I can get my good leg to the ground, the man throws her body at my feet.

I feel the anger, the hate, everything bad run through my veins like never before, and I can't hold back the tear that runs down my face. I knew this would happen, I felt it was close and I didn't do anything to get out soon.

It's my fault.

Another man throws Grace beside me. I catch her and put her beautiful face on my neck so she doesn't see what's about to happen.

- I'm here Grace. I'm here. - I whisper trying to calm her down as I try to free her tied hands.

I try to concentrate on letting her go, but my eyes are fixed on Andrei who walks towards us, playing with the gun in his hand.

- Didn't you learn? If you're afraid of wolves, don't sleep in the woods.